Corpus Christi Payoff
We call it the CORPUS CHRISTI PAYOFF, the stupid decision by city council to pay off hotel developer AJIT DAVID to make him drop his lawsuit against the taxpayers.
Looks like the payback is already underway, and we’ve filed a complaint with the Texas Ethics Commission to see if tens of thousands of dollars of campaign cash already spent were spent illegally.
Corpus Payoff
It’s election season and I’ve made so many new good friends in Corpus Christi.
“I’ve never spoken to you; I don’t even like you.” Said Rachel Caballero.
“I don’t care if you like me or not,” said Wayne Dolcefino.
“Once, that’s all you had doodoo Frodo, once and now your time is over,” said anonymous.
Public officials are getting out of Dodge.
“Do you think that there was a conflict? You’re going to make me walk down the stairs with you really? Cmon Mr. Holland this is silly,” said Wayne Dolcefino.
“I don’t talk on camera,” says Miles Risley.
“Don’t touch the camera,” said Wayne Dolcefino.
“I don’t talk on camera,” said Miles Risley.
“yeah but don’t touch the camera,” says Wayne Dolcefino.
“I want to know why you’re hiding our records. All the records,” replies Wayne.
“I don’t hide them,” said Miles Risley.
City council members who complain about corruption refused to answer questions about corruption.
“You’ve been avoiding me for weeks councilmember. This should be embarrassing to you. How do you represent your constituents by hiding from questions?” asks Wayne to Council Member Kaylynn Paxson while she hides in her car.
They hide public records detailing the relationships between some council members and a hotel developer after voting for what we call the “Corpus Payoff” and now we learn the developer is paying back.
“People ask what’s next for Corpus Christi. Here’s my answer,” a direct quote from Carolyn Vaughn.
In three months, only three people donated money to help Carolyn Vaughn get re-elected to Corpus Christi’s city council. Is that a hint that she’s not what’s next for Corpus Christi?
“Yeah, I don’t know if it’s going down in flames, but I can say that there’s not a lot a lot of love out there,” says council candidate Scott Corliss.
We don’t see any photos of Vaughn’s sparsely attended recent campaign fundraiser on her Facebook page. Look where it was held, the Holiday Inn Marina. That’s Ajit David’s place. What a coincidence.
“Motion to approve a compromise settlement agreement with Ajit David for an amount of $450,000 for attorney fees and dismissal of the cases against the City and Mayor,” Carolyn Vaughn announces during a city council meeting on August 25, 2026.
Vaughn was one of the five Corpus Christi councilmembers who ignored the advice of the city’s hired lawyer and voted to pay Ajit David, and his lawyer Doug Allison, $450,000 of your tax money.
That’s not stopping a nuisance lawsuit that the lawyers told you would be likely thrown out of court. They get zero. In my view, it’s a political payoff.
“That concludes our offer with regard to Mr. Zanoni,” said Doug Allison.
Allison had prosecuted the failed removal trial of the mayor. Ajit David had funded that fight too, but the failed dog and pony show may have backfired politically for the foolish five. A recent poll by the Coastal Been Coalition PAC shows more than 80% of folks in town now disapproved of the current city council.
That’s bad news for Vaughn and for Kaylynn Paxson. She voted for the payoff too. Paxson was telling folks she was going to run for mayor, even before presiding over the current mayor’s inquisition. Bowen and Paxson have something else in common: they both misused the city’s security to hide from our legitimate questions.
“You’ve been avoiding me for weeks, council member. This should be embarrassing to you,” exclaims Wayne Dolcefino to Kaylynn Paxson.
Paxson raised $4,500 in her first mayoral campaign report. Her biggest donor? Wait for it… Bayfront Marina LLC, who owns that? Oh, I know, Ajit David and Raju Bhagat. What a coincidence!
Now take a look at the campaign report Gil Hernandez filed in early October. He was also a juror on the mayor’s trial and he’s now running for mayor against her. His ads falsely claimed the mayor was convicted of something. They did vote to suspend the mayor, but that vote was never in question. Two of the five voters were going to run against Paulette Guajardo. Well, that seemed fair.
Hernandez’s four biggest contributors kicked in $2,500 apiece. Who are they? Ajit’s business partner Raju Bhagat, Raju’s nephew, and Nishy George, who owns a house on Ocean Drive with guess who… Ajit David.
I guess you folks in Corpus shouldn’t be surprised that Ajit and his buddies really like these council members. Why not? They’ve done them so many favors.
City council looked the other way when we showed you how Ajit David had gotten tax incentives for hotel improvements that were never made.
“Is submitting a building permit, a falsified government document when it’s the wrong number?” asks Wayne to Ajit David at Corpus Christi’s city council meeting.
He promised a rooftop deck at the Residence Inn on the Bayfront. We wanted to enjoy the sun on our last trip but obviously couldn’t.
“You know what? There is no roof here!” exclaims Wayne at the hotel.
The council did nothing after we showed you the black and white evidence that David cheated the city out of building permit fees, undervaluing by millions the cost of construction on his hotel. The city council audit committee went behind closed doors in September and chose not to even hire outside auditors to check the math. There was silence when we exposed the city auditors’ clear conflict of interest in what’s become known as the “hotel war.” Again, there is an Ajit David connection.
“You know what? I feel people blowing this off. There’s a power- I feel an aura in this place,” Wayne says to Mr. Peter Zanoni, the Corpus Christi City Manager.
“Alright, so how much did you pay Mr. Allison?” Wayne asks George Holland, the former Corpus Christi auditor.
“You’re lying. You don’t know your facts,” Holland deflects.
“I’m lying? What am I lying about?” asks Wayne.
“Because you’re getting paid,” replies George.
Auditor George Holland accused Ajit David’s competitors of likely fraud in the tax incentives for the Hilton Homewood Suites.
We now know from the city’s own records that an investigation wa s a sham!
No records of any interviews. The auditor didn’t even question the developers of the Homewood Suites Hotel. The city council refused to investigate if Holland had ever accepted an illegal gift from Ajit’s lawyer, Doug Allison. Namely, free or reduced legal services when Holling was accused of office misconduct.
“Why city council members allowed him to conduct the investigation into these other hotel guys, is beyond me,” Wayne says to the city council members at the meeting.
Law enforcement said no laws were ever broken but city council still voted to spend a bunch more money investigating anyway. They fired lawyers who told them David’s lawsuit should be fought.
“It was about to be dismissed. Every lawyer that looked at this case said that there was no jurisdiction for Ajit David’s claims,” says attorney Jeffrey Lehrman.
Instead, counsel killed the $2 million tax incentive for Ajit’s competitors at Homewood Suites. They then paid off Ajit and his lawyers to the tune of $450,000. Follow the money. Now David and his partner are giving more campaign cash to the council members who helped them get away with it.
I warned you taxpayers months ago that the council’s actions would do nothing but add more lawsuits. More of your money is spent unnecessarily.
The Homewood Suites developers have widened their lawsuit, not just by suing the city manager, but council and the Type B Board, too.
“You’ll understand that it’s a serious suit, and my clients intend on pursuing it the whole way,” continues attorney Lehrman.
Original lawsuit landed in Judge Sandra Watts Court. Good for him. She should have recused herself. Doug Allison was her lawyer before. Her son calls Allison his brother.
But make no mistake, the big issue in the Corpus Christi election in November is water.
The council voted repeatedly to kill the Inner Harbor de-sal project, even though Corpus Christi taxpayers have already spent upwards of $50 million dollars on the project. The vote rejected lucrative government grants that could help pay the expensive bill. Desalination plans, wherever they end up being billed, will cost a ton of money. Vaughn made headlines attacking the Republican governor.
“We can only give them a little time more before the state of Texas has to take over and micromanage that city and run that city to make sure that every resident who goes to the water tap and turns it on, they’re going to be getting water out of their faucet,” a direct quote from Governor of Texas, Mr. Greg Abbott on the Corpus Christi water crisis.
“Shame on him that a governor would come in and say you’re going to take over a city because of inaction. The endorsement from the Coastal Bend Coalition is extremely important because of the work that they continue to do, the people that believe in that work and mission,” says Carolyn Vaughn.
The Coastal Bend Coalition is a political action committee that wants to move forward with the Inner Harbor Project.
Inner Harbor Website quotes “The Inner Harbor is permitted and ready to go. Reliable water, even in a drought.”
They have $500,000 to spend. Vaughn didn’t get their endorsement, but she says she didn’t really want it. Three at-large candidates did, including Scott Corliss.
“You think this election is about water?” asks Wayne Dolcefino.
“I believe this, yes, it is very much about water because people are tired of hearing the same old story. We haven’t got anything done,” says Scott Corliss, an At-Large candidate.
Reporting on political action committees is legitimate news that KIII (3 News) reported, but it’s what’s not being reported in the local media that I want to talk about.
Corpus Christi taxpayers signed that big legal payoff check to Ajit David and his lawyer, Doug Allison, on September 16th. You know what else happened that day at Corpus Christi City Hall? The birth of another political action committee.
It’s called Corpus Christi United, a political action committee paying for billboards and TV ads for the mayoral campaign of Gil Hernandez, billboards opposing Mayor Guajardo. Their website attacks the cost of the Inner Harbor Project.
The treasurer of Corpus Christi United was originally listed as Zachary Bornstein of B&Z Consulting. He’s the one who filed for an assumed name for the PAC. And he sits on the downtown Corpus Christi Management District Board. Look who he represents on that board: Holiday Inn Corpus Christi, Ajit David’s hotel.
On September 22nd, the treasurer’s name was changed to Trevor Slowick. But the city secretary did not put either filing on the city election website. She should have. And Corpus Christi United did not file a required campaign report on October 5th, 30 days before the election. After word of the PAC’s existence started leaking, we learned the filings were illegally done, the wrong form used.
“There is not a responsibility on the city secretary to inform them,” states ethics lawyer Andrew Cates.
City Secretary Rebecca Huerta won’t talk to us, but I guess Ajit David must be special.
On October 15th of this year, just a few weeks before Election Day, the Corpus Christi United PAC created their proper specific purpose. The Texas election code says the PAC filing must include the name of each candidate and each measure supported by the committee. The PAC-Filing only says they oppose candidates that support Inner Harbor.
The PAC won’t have to disclose how much money Ajit David, or his partner Raju Bhagat, or attorney Doug Allison, may have put into the coffers of Corpus Christi United, until just a few days before election day. And maybe that’s by design. Remember Doug Allison is already involved in a de-sal company with the former Corpus Christi Port’s CEO, Sean Strawbridge.
I don’t think money’s a big problem for these guys, but they do have that extra windfall. The money they got from city council that they could, I guess, invest in helping those same people get reelected. Sounds kind of sleazy, don’t you think?
But if the PAC was not legally formed until October 15th, was all their spending before that illegal? We know the PAC bought $53,000 in TV ads on KIII before their legal filing.
Ads on multiple radio stations, too. Who signed the radio contract? You guessed it, Ajit David.
“You are the biggest deflector I think I’ve ever met,” exclaims Wayne to Ajit David.
Tens of thousands of dollars spent before Corpus Christi United had the legal right to spend it. The Corpus Christi Cronica calls it “dark money.”
“The money came from somewhere, it didn’t just materialize,” recalls Andrew Cates.
“A city hall that’s calmer, clearer, and easier to trust,” Carolyn Vaughn promotes about her campaign.
Carolyn Vaughn says she wants a calmer city hall. Easier to trust, really? She’s one of the council members accused of causing all the chaos of last year in the first place.
Wayne asks Vaughn as she walks inside, “How do you explain it to the people that you guys are causing chaos?”
“They need her inside,” deflects the adjoining officer.
“I don’t care, I’m allowed to do this,” Wayne replies “I’m allowed to talk to, okay? It’s called America. It’s a weird thing.”
Vaughn voted to fire the lawyers who kept telling the council that the Homewood Suite scandal really wasn’t a scandal at all. Just revenge by one hotel developer mad that his competitors were getting the same tax breaks he had gotten before. Tax money to help promote redevelopment in a downtown area that desperately needs it.
“Why can’t the city just release the records in the public interest?” asks Wayne Dolcefino.
“I’m going to look for you. And I promised I would before, I just haven’t done that yet,” replies city manager Peter Zanoni.
That was late June and quite frankly I’m just tired of waiting.
So, Corpus, see you guys in court.
Keep up with us on social media:
